Charles Pergler

“ No nation is entitled to freedom and liberty, nor can it maintain its freedom and liberty, without having fought for it, without having won it for itself. These priceless possessions never have been and never will be of any value as a mere gift, and never have been and never can be banlied about as charity. Immediately upon the declaration of war the whole Czechoslovak nation adopted a vigorously anti-Austrian and anti-German attitude. ”

“ In the natural process of Americanization, which we all welcome, and which needs no artificial stimulation, some day there will cease to be such things as separate racial fragments in the United States. But a grateful Czechoslovak nation will always remember, as long as history is written, that before losing their identity in the melting pot of America, those who were forced to leave Bohemia and Slovakia because of Austrian and Magyar oppression, aided in achieving freedom and liberty for their native land. ”

“ The whole history of the movement for the liberation and unity of Italy is a history of wars against Austria. Italy owes its liberation not only to the heroism of its own sons, but to armed support of France, and the diplomatic assistance of England. It is an interesting fact that for a long time Austria was the enemy of German unity, which was made possible only after the defeat of Austria by Prussia in 1866.
But the continuous opposition of Austria to the principle of nationality may perhaps best be seen in her attitude towards the Balkan nationalities, and especially the Serbs. ”

“ The tendency has been at least to attempt to mitigate the very barbarities of war, and any government or nation reverting to primitive methods of warfare is guilty of a crime against civilization which cannot be condoned. But Germany by its last decree arrogates to itself sovereign powers over the nations of the earth. America and American citizens on the high seas have certain rights which cannot be invaded by any other power, and if another power attempts to abridge them, that power is invading the sovereignty of the United States of America, and attempting to make of it a vassal nation. ”

“ The Hapsburgs not only permitted, but actually encouraged a division of the Austro-Hungarian empire into two parts, in one of which the non-German nationalities were turned over to the untender mercies of the German minority, while in the other, the Magyars reigned supreme, Magyarizing the Slavs and Roumanians, and endeavoring to make veritable slaves and helots of them. It is a partnership in crime on a tremendous scale. This partnership in crime will not be voluntarily dissolved, for Germans and Magyars will never surrender the position of privileged and ruling nations in Austria-Hungary. ”

“ With the various nations of the world so freed, we may then take the next step, that of forming a society of nations and an international order worth securing by what has become known as a League of Nations, or perhaps a League to Enforce Peace. But a condition precedent to the formation of any such society is, and must be, the establishment of a just international order, one really worth securing and fighting for. ”

“ When the war ends, we shall see the civilized world freed from the nightmare of German militarism, we shall witness the disappearance of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the re-establishment of an independent Czechoslovak state, and of a united Poland. ”

“ The preservation of Austria-Hungary means the preservation of the Hapsburgs and the continuation, at least to that extent, of the kings’ and emperors’ business, which has been kept alive by the sacrifice of millions of women and children, and the destruction of untold, unimaginable treasures. ”

“ America always stood ready to extend support to those justly asking for it. She always recognized any movement which showed itself to be really one of the people. So she has now accorded recognition to the Czechoslovak movement for independence. She waited, and properly waited, until it was demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt that Czecho-Slovak peoples demanded severance from Austria-Hungary, until they showed on the battlefield that they themselves were willing to lay down their lives to achieve their independent purposes. ”

“ In fact, what the Czechoslovaks in America did was not a campaign of propaganda, but one of information. There is a distinction between the two terms. To inform means to tell the truth: to conduct propaganda does not necessarily mean telling the truth, as the Germans have abundantly shown us. It is not an exaggeration to say that in no other country did the Czechoslovak campaign of information reach the proportions it obtained in the United States. ”

“ It is also true that the future Bohemian-Slovak state will have a German minority; but in central and eastern Europe hardly any state can be constructed without cerain national minorities. In the present instance the minority is not as large as would seem on the basis of the false Austrian and Magyar statistics. But it will certainly be easier to safeguard the interests of a German and Magyar minority in a Bohemian-Slovak state than it would be to protect the rights of Bohemians and Slovaks in a deformed Austria, or to force Austria to become a federal state. ”

“ What the President unquestionably wanted to do was to assure the German people that their national state would be left intact; that there would be no attempt to disrupt Germany as a national state. Austria is not a national state; it is not a nation even in the political sense of the term; it has become a wholly artificial entity, without a solid foundation in the facts of international life. ”

“ If humanity is to have faith in the protestations of the Allies, including the United States, that they are struggling for freedom of small nations and the removal of the Prussian menace, the Allies must adhere to their original program of the dismemberment of Austria-Hungary. ”

“ Does not this recital furnish sufficient proof that the very existence of Austria is a negation of the principle of nationality? If there is to be permanent peace, if, to paraphrase one of President Wilson’s statements to the senate, the world’s life is to be stable, if the will is not to be in rebellion, if there is to be tranquillity of spirit, and a sense of justice, of freedom and of right, the Austro-Hungarian state must go, even as the Turks must be driven from Europe. ”

“ Social and political problems faced by the Czechoslovak Republic are not dissimilar to those found in the other new states formed as a result of the defeat of the Central Empires—Poland and Jugoslavia, as well as in united Rumania. In approaching these questions the American public must remember that the situation in Europe differs fundamentally from that prevailing in America. One can defend very plausibly the individualistic school of political economy, and equally so, and even with perhaps more plausibility, what may properly be called the co-operative school of thought. ”

“ Austria can be no more federated than European Turkey. To permit Austria to exist in any form when this war is concluded, is merely to delay the solution of a problem that will never down; and in the life of nations, as well as individuals, delay and procrastination, the tendency to postpone a final decision, is a crime for which penalties are sure to follow. ”

“ And while in Europe these foundations were laid by that great leader Thomas G. Masaryk, in the United States his countrymen were forced to get along without his in comparable and unparalleled judgment, the benefit of which his co-workers in Europe all had at one time or another.
The Czechoslovaks of America have a right to claim that they, too, contributed to the triumph of the cause as a whole. The liberation of a nation is always a resultant of the interplay of various forces. ”

“ A MAN may lose his soul by living, a man may save it by dying. The civilized powers of the world will save their souls by prosecuting this war to a victorious conclusion, no matter what the cost in lives or treasure. ”

“ The problem for the statesman and the sound thinker is to seek an orderly way, one which can be pursued with the minimum of suffering to society as a whole, and to the individuals composing it. The art of real statesmanship may be said to consist in bringing about new social formations without violence, and without bloodshed. This, so far, the Czechoslovak Republic has accomplished. ”

“ The Czechs and Slovaks therefore have the perfect right to attempt to abolish this government and to institute a new one. Indeed, the center of gravity of the world’s reaction has shifted to Vienna. Austria-Hungary is a land of unlimited and unbridled absolutism, and in struggling for independence the Czechs and Slovaks are also fighting for democracy in the best sense of the term.
The American people and the American government have never hesitated to express their sympathy with peoples struggling against alien domination and for independence. ”

“ The Austrian problem is strongly akin to that of Turkey. In fact, the fate of these two purely military and autocratic empires is closely intertwined. The downfall of Turkey spells downfall for Austria, since Austria loses her ruling idea and her states men cannot find for her a mission. Austria loses ground progressively, just as Turkey did. Consider only the dissolution of the Austro-Spanish Empire; that later the monarchy lost the greater part of Silesia, and finally was forced completely to abandon Germany by Prussia ”

“ President Wilson several times has declared that there can be no peace without justice to all nations, be they big or small, weak or strong. Indeed this he declares to be one of the conditions of permament peace. Our whole movement therefore is in accord with American traditions as represented by official, as well as unofficial, expressions, beginning with the Declaration of Independence, and ending with the latest of state papers by Woodrow Wilson. ”

“ One cannot help remarking that prior to this war those now worrying over the possible oppression of a German minority by majority of Czecho-Slovaks were little concerned about the oppression of the majority by the minority, which has been going on for centuries. It should also be noted that a policy of denationalization of other peoples is one peculiar almost wholly to the Germans. After all, there is such a thing as psychology of nations, and the Slavs have never been noted for attempts to impose their language upon other nationalites. ”

“ A state of war may exist without an actual clash of arms, and without bloodshed. Austria-Hungary has been the scene of what in its effects was real warfare ever since the rise of the spirit of nationality. Because of this warfare, parliamentary life in Austria was impossible and the state brought to impotence and the very verge of bankruptcy. ”

“ It is indeed strange what a superficial view people occasionally take of matters of supreme importance. Not a few voices have arisen in this country that President Wilson erred in severing diplomatic relations with the German Empire because of the ruthless German methods of submarine warfare. People taking this position do not seem to realize that beneath the questions of violation of international law and of the laws of humanity lie matters of even deeper import. ”

“ When Germany attempts to dictate to this country that only one vessel a week shall pass between American and English ports, marked with certain stripes, she is invading American sovereignty, she is attempting to do a thing which only a sovereign can attempt to dictate to a subject, and when the president takes measures to show that this nation has not become a subject nation of Germany, we are with him to the end. ”

“ In a recent speech in Prague the President declared that the new nation must have a democratic army based upon free and voluntary discipline, and convinced of its mission to defend the country against external enemies. This democratic army will be solely for purposes of defense, and will naturally be governed by the exigencies of the international situation, and whether or not an international organization can be achieved which shall do away entirely with the necessity of any armies except for purely police purposes. ”

“ Pacifists resent to be called peace at any price people; yet most of them are crying out against war under any circumstances, and under any conditions; they want war stopped, apparently regardless of terms. ”

“ Loyalty to Austria, as at present constituted, would of course be treason to the Bohemian nation and indeed to the highest ideals of modern man. This phase of the matter is not within the scope of the present article. But it can be argued with more than a reasonable degree of plausibility that legally no Bohemian can be guilty of treason to the Austrian state. Austria still has the power to declare what shall constitute treason; whether or not she has the right, legally or otherwise, is an entirely different question. ”

“ Austria-Hungary not only always opposed the legitimate ambitions of its own peoples, but its whole foreign policy was ever dictated by a desire to smother the tendencies aiming at the liberation of various nationalities and their unity in national states. ”

“ The new Czechoslovak Republic is the greatest experiment in really liberal and progressive government ever undertaken on the European continent, and it is entitled to the sympathy and aid of the great American democracy. ”

“ The erection of new independent national states in the Balkans was not in accord with their plans and imperialistic aspirations, and Austria-Hungary developed into as dangerous an enemy of freedom for the Balkan nations as Turkey ever was. ”

“ The Czechs have proven the possibility of independence by their economic and cultural development. Economically and financially the Czech countries are the richest of the present Austrian “provinces”, and when freed of oppressive taxation, discriminating in favor of financially “passive” Austrian lands, the independent Bohemian-Slovak state would be even richer. At the present time 62.7 per cent, of the burden of Austrian taxation is borne by the Czech countries, while the rest of Austria carries only 37.3 per cent. ”